I have been working on a semi M53 build for a little while now acquiring parts and making plans, I wanted to do this build in .308 due to 8mm availability and have had a hard time tracking down reasonably priced .308 barrels.

I decided to email a company for a quote for barrels and the price is reasonable enough to make a small batch. I was wondering if there is any interest here and what you all would like to see in a .308 MG42/M53 barrel.

This is what I was thinking .300”-.302” bore / .308”-.310” groove4 lands @ .180”1:11.25 twistPhosphate or blued finishChrome lined

I understand that if you buy a random MG42 barrel there is a chance it won't headspace. However if you duplicate an original barrel, how much better can you get than that? I know new production 8mm barrels and .308 barrels have been made in the past so it's possible, what do i need to look out for/know?

Do you think it would be smart to buy a lot of barrel extensions, and send them in to get the barrels fitted by the manufacturer?

I am still in the planning phases so i came here to work out the details if at all possible.

Well I think that it's great that someone has an interest in doing this. Apex did a run of barrels a while back and offered them both ways if I remember right. 1 way barrel only and the other was barrel with extension. You could offer the same, Green Mountain made the barrels for them. I would talk to Apex first and make sure that they were not about to make another run of them. Personally I think they would be happy to let you do it. With the barrels drying up you might have an interest out there. Barrels only, I'm pretty sure would sell, till extensions totally dry up.Barrels with extensions, done by someone good enough to do it.

The barrel itself is only 1/3 of the headspace variable. The other two are the barrel extension, and the bolt. All three need to fit together properly to get the headspace, but the barrel and barrel extension are the two that are able to be adjusted (chamber depth, and how far the barrel is screwed into the extension).

Since not every bolt someone pulls out of a pile will be within tolerances, headspace is checked with both the assembled barrel and extension, together with the bolt. Each may be off by a little, but together, they may not be outside the tolerance range (stacking tolerances). 10 or 15 thousandths can make a difference in whether the bolt rollers fully lock or not.

So, checking the headspace on the combination of your bolt and a new barrel is still required, just as it is with original barrels. The original guns came with 2 spare barrels (3 total), which were serial numbered to the gun for this reason. I still have one original barrel, serial numbered to the gun, for my MG42. The original bolts are long gone, so I still have to check headspace on each combination of the 4 bolts and 8 barrels I have.

If the manufacturer is capable of putting on the extensions and setting the headspace properly, that would be the way to go. Someone would be a fool to think that doing the extra work himself to make a bare barrel into something usable would be a good way to save $40 or $50.

If I were in need, I'd willingly spend $300 for a new barrel, properly headspaced, that's ready to be used.

JBaum wrote:The barrel itself is only 1/3 of the headspace variable. The other two are the barrel extension, and the bolt. All three need to fit together properly to get the headspace, but the barrel and barrel extension are the two that are able to be adjusted (chamber depth, and how far the barrel is screwed into the extension).

Since not every bolt someone pulls out of a pile will be within tolerances, headspace is checked with both the assembled barrel and extension, together with the bolt. Each may be off by a little, but together, they may not be outside the tolerance range (stacking tolerances). 10 or 15 thousandths can make a difference in whether the bolt rollers fully lock or not.

So, checking the headspace on the combination of your bolt and a new barrel is still required, just as it is with original barrels. The original guns came with 2 spare barrels (3 total), which were serial numbered to the gun for this reason. I still have one original barrel, serial numbered to the gun, for my MG42. The original bolts are long gone, so I still have to check headspace on each combination of the 4 bolts and 8 barrels I have.

If the manufacturer is capable of putting on the extensions and setting the headspace properly, that would be the way to go. Someone would be a fool to think that doing the extra work himself to make a bare barrel into something usable would be a good way to save $40 or $50.

If I were in need, I'd willingly spend $300 for a new barrel, properly headspaced, that's ready to be used.

Thanks for the info. I was just informed of a better option for those looking for these barrels.